Sebastian Janikowski agrees to contract with Seahawks

"SeaBass" is coming to Seattle.

The Seahawks announced Friday that longtime Oakland Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski signed a one-year contract with the team.

The deal comes after Janikowski flew to Seattle on Tuesday to meet with the organization.

For the Seahawks, the move gives them another veteran kicker to compete with Jason Myers for the job that Blair Walsh held last season.

For the 40-year-old Janikowski, it's a chance to continue his career in the Pacific Northwest after spending his first 18 seasons in Oakland. He didn't play in 2017 because of a back injury and wasn't re-signed when his contract expired at season's end.

A surprise choice as the 17th overall pick in 2000, Janikowski left Oakland as the Raiders' all-time leading scorer with 1,799 points, which ranks 11th in NFL history. He's 10th all time in converted field goals with 414 and 12th in attempts with 515, according to Pro Football Reference. Janikowski's powerful left leg has booted an NFL-record 55 field goals of 50 yards or longer. That includes a 63-yarder in 2011 against the Broncos in Denver, which tied what at the time was an NFL record.

He became one of the most well-known kickers in NFL history because of his on-field success as well as his atypical build (6-foot-1, 260 pounds) and his history of run-ins with the law while at Florida State and in Oakland. The most recent came in 2011, when Janikowski was charged with misdemeanor battery and false imprisonment stemming from a 2010 incident involving an alleged victim who was a female. Among his other legal scrapes was a 2002 DUI charge.

The Seahawks were in the market for a new kicker after Walsh's lone season with the team did not go as planned. It started off well, with Walsh making 12 of his first 13 field goals, but ended disastrously when he missed seven of his final 16 kicks. Of those seven misses, six came during four losses that were decided by a touchdown or less.

Walsh's 72.4 percent field goal rate (21 of 29) ranked 29th among qualified kickers. He's an unrestricted free agent after playing out a one-year, $1.1 million deal with Seattle.

Coach Pete Carroll said at the scouting combine that the Seahawks would likely bring in another kicker to compete with Myers, whom they had signed to a futures contract after the season. The 26-year-old Myers spent parts of three seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who released him last October.

Janikowski has a connection to the Seahawks' staff in special-teams coordinator Brian Schneider. He held the same job with the Raiders in 2007 and 2008.